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Former radical activist Bernardine Dohrn and her companion William Ayers leave court in Chicago on Jan. 14, 1981. Dohrn received a $1,500 fine and three years probation for her role in the 'Days of Rage' disturbance in Chicago in 1969.
AP Photo

“I feel very uncomfortable with their past, but neither of them is thought of as horrible types now — so far as most of us know, they are legitimate members of the community,” said Cass Sunstein, a University of Chicago law professor who has known Obama since the early 1990s and supports his campaign.

“Not only is Obama the opposite pole from radicals like Ayers and Dohrn at least as one point were, he’s not a conventional left liberal by any means,” he said.

Others are less inclined to even consider forgiveness.

“Ayers was a terrorist. Bernardine Dohrn was a terrorist. Ayers has never offered one word of apology — he glories in it, thinks it’s terrific. And that to me is not what I would call acceptable or mainstream behavior,” said Dan Polsby, a former law professor at Northwestern who is now dean of George Mason University Law School. “If Obama takes a different view on that — well, OK, that’s data about Obama.”

On Thursday, Ayers spoke at the State University of New York at New Paltz, where he refused to answer questions from Politico about his relationship with Obama.

Dohrn did not respond to a message left at her office.

Obama’s campaign dismisses the notion that his relationship with Ayers should be seen through the lens of the latter’s violent past, or his present lack of regret for the bombings.

“Sen. Obama strongly condemns the violent actions of the Weathermen group, as he does all acts of violence,” said Obama’s press secretary, Bill Burton. “But he was an 8-year-old child when Ayers and the Weathermen were active, and any attempt to connect Obama with events of almost 40 years ago is ridiculous.”

He described Ayers as “a professor of education at the University of Illinois-Chicago and a former aide to Mayor Richard J. Daley,” referring to printed reports that he had “advised” Daley on school reform.

As Bloomberg News reported recently, Obama and Ayers have crossed paths repeatedly in the last decade. In 1997, Obama cited Ayers’ critique of the juvenile justice system in a Chicago Tribune article on what prominent Chicagoans were reading. He and Ayers served together on the board of the Woods Fund of Chicago for three years starting in 1999. In 2001, Ayers also gave $200 to Obama’s state Senate reelection campaign.

Many details of the 1995 meeting are shrouded by time and by Obama’s and Ayers’ refusals to discuss it.

The exact date is not known, but it was in the second half of 1995, before Palmer’s decision — late in her losing congressional primary against Jesse Jackson Jr. — to jump back into the special election for her state Senate seat. (Her decision produced a rift between her and Obama, who was able to get her thrown off the ballot on technical grounds.)

Dr. Young and another guest, Maria Warren, described it similarly: as an introduction to Hyde Park liberals of the handpicked successor to Palmer, a well-regarded figure on the left.

“When I first met Barack Obama, he was giving a standard, innocuous little talk in the living room of those two legends-in-their-own-minds, Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn,” Warren wrote on her blog in 2005. “They were launching him — introducing him to the Hyde Park community as the best thing since sliced bread.”

Contacted by e-mail, Warren declined to describe the meeting further and later blogged of her concern that Republicans would use accounts of the event for “left-baiting.”

Young described the gathering as a matter of “due diligence” for Palmer to introduce her chosen successor to constituents. “Many of us knew him already,” he said.

They, like others in his old Chicago world, now consider him a bit too “conservative” for their liking, as Warren wrote recently.

Ackerman, the Hyde Park activist, complained of his votes for continued funding for the Iraq war.

“A lot of people were very angry when he voted to fund the war,” he said. “But any candidate running for president is going to strive for broader appeal and move more to the center — I don’t believe that Barack has departed from his basic principles.”

Dr. Young said, however, that he isn’t supporting either of the leading presidential candidates because he is a single-issue voter, and the issue is single-payer health care.

He said he was disappointed that Obama is “equivocating” on his support for single-payer health care, after saying in the past that he supported it. But he said Obama’s style — “cautious, deliberate, defensive” — was also familiar from the senator’s Hyde Park days.

“In fairness, there’s no double dealing,” he said. “It’s part of his stated strategy: He wants to get maximum unity.”

I think we all would like to see a Democratic President so instead of us trying to outsmear each others choice maybe we could try to figure out a way for all of us to win. I keep reading comments from these blogs where people say if Hillary is the nominee that they would plug their nose and vote for McCain or if Obama is the nominee then they will vote for McCain. We can't win if we do that. What do you think would happen IF we let the DEMOCRATIC PARTY and the CANDIDATES know that when it comes to the General Election your choices are REPUBLICAN...DEMOCRATIC.....OTHER. Lets say Obama is the Presidential candidate. Anyone that is a Hillary supporter plans on using the write in or OTHER and vote for her. The same results would happen, we would probably lose because we all know that whoever is the nominee will need the others vote. Remember I did say that we would let the democratic party (Chairman of the Democratic National Committee, Gov. Howard Dean) our intentions. Ask them to encourage Obama and Hillary to run together . How could we lose? They can hash it out amongst themselves as to which would be President and Vice President. They could flip a coin as far as I care. Who would of thought that we Democrats would be bickering back and forth. We should be united now. Think about this too. It would take care of the super delegate problem and those states that didn't really have their vote counted. Just throwing this out there...What do you think?

While Ayers and Dohrn may be thought of in Hyde Park as local activists, they’re better known nationally as two of the most notorious – and unrepentant — figures from the violent fringe of the 1960s anti-war movement.

Now, as Obama runs for president, what two guests recall as an unremarkable gathering on the road to a minor elected office stands as a symbol of how swiftly he has risen from the Hyde Park left to a man closing in fast on the Democratic nomination for president.

This is not good for Obama.

These are the kinds of stories that the baby boom generation will remember until November.

What about voting for who would be better at the job of Commander - in - Chief? Who would be better at handling the military? Who would be the best at securing the boarders? Who would the terrorists fear the most? I don't want a Daddy or a Mommy, just a great Commander in Chief at a time of war. I don't have to mention a name but everyone knows who would be best.

Obuma met with radical left Dems what a surprise. What else has he done and what agreements have been made? Obuma is not ready to be the leader of the free world. The tyrants in the world will spin him in circles and laugh at all us while doing it.

Wow...another lame attempt at a hit job, most likely pushed by the Clinton camp. What's next...that Obama once shook someone's hand at a rally that hadn't showered that day, and so by extension that means that Obama doesn't shower? It really is that ludicrous.

But the visit by Obama to their home—part of a campaign courtship—reflects more extensive interaction than has previously reported.

This is starting to be a reccurent theme with Barry. Anything for the campaign in order to be elected.

His lack of judment becomes more apparent as more and more of these stories surface...

It’s also a scene whose liberal ideological features – while taken for granted by the Chicago press corps that knows Obama best – provides a jarring contrast with Obama’s current, anti-ideological stance. This contrast between past and present—not least the Ayers connection—is virtually certain to be a subject Republican operatives will warm to if Obama is the Democratic nominee.

“Ayers was a terrorist. Bernardine Dohrn was a terrorist. Ayers has never offered one word of apology – he glories in it, thinks it’s terrific. And that to me is not what I would call acceptable or mainstream behavior,” said Dan Polsby, a former law professor at Northwestern who is now dean of George Mason University Law School. “If Obama takes a different view on that--well, ok, that’s data about Obama.”

Obama’s campaign dismisses the notion that his relationship with Ayers should be seen through the lens of the latter’s violent past, or his present lack of regret for the bombings.

“Senator Obama strongly condemns the violent actions of the Weathermen group, as he does all acts of violence,” said Obama’s press secretary, Bill Burton. “But he was an eight-year old child when Ayers and the Weathermen were active, and any attempt to connect Obama with events of almost forty years ago is ridiculous.”

He described Ayers as “a professor of education at the University of Illinois-Chicago and a former aide to Mayor Richard J. Daley,” referring to printed reports that he had “advised” Daley on school reform.

As Bloomberg News reported recently, Obama and Ayers have crossed paths repeatedly in the last decade. In 1997, Obama cited Ayers’ critique of the juvenile justice system in a Chicago Tribune article on what prominent Chicagoans were reading. He and Ayers served together on the board of the Woods Fund of Chicago for three years starting in 1999. In 2001, Ayers also gave $200 to Obama’s state senate reelection campaign.

The exact date is not known, but it was in the second half of 1995, before Palmer’s decision – late in her losing congressional primary against Jesse Jackson Jr. – to jump back into the special election for her State Senate seat. (Her decision produced a rift between her and Obama, who was able to get her thrown off the ballot on technical grounds.)

“When I first met Barack Obama, he was giving a standard, innocuous little talk in the living room of those two legends-in-their-own-minds, Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn,” Warren, wrote on her blog in 2005. “They were launching him--introducing him to the Hyde Park community as the best thing since sliced bread.”

This is an interesting story, but I wonder if it will have any real impact. It seems like a whole lot of nothing; Obama met countless people during his career and just because he spoke to two nutcases doesn't mean he agrees with them. More importantly, you have to be about fifty years old to know or care who these two even were. Obama's base of young supporters could care less about two people they never heard of who set off some bombs in the 60's. BUT, it may have quite an impact on older voters. We'll see how this goes.

""I think we all would like to see a Democratic President so instead of us trying to outsmear each others choice maybe we could try to figure out a way for all of us to win. I keep reading comments from these"" YOU are so wrong maybe 15% would like marxist president the rest of us would like a conservative President, that will fight for our country instead of trying to tear it down. Thank God Hilly and Obama are unelectable.

Ben Smith needs to be fired by the Politico imediately. This article trying to suggest somehow that Obama is a terrorist is absolutely riducilous. My God what's this country coming to? The politico as just lost all credibility. We know John Harris is a Clinton supporter, but please come on John. Say you guys aren't becoming the Enquirer.